A Swedish heavy metal fan has had his musical preferences officially classified as a disability. The results of a psychological analysis enable the metal lover to supplement his income with state benefits.

Because heavy metal dominates so many aspects of his life, the Employment Service has agreed to pay part of Tullgren's salary. His new boss meanwhile has given him a special dispensation to play loud music at work.

"I have been trying for ten years to get this classified as a handicap," Tullgren told The Local.

"I spoke to three psychologists and they finally agreed that I needed this to avoid being discriminated against." [...]

But his sessions with the occupational psychologists led to a solution of sorts: Tullgren signed a piece of paper on which his heavy metal lifestyle was classified as a disability, an assessment that entitles him to a wage supplement from the job centre.

"I signed a form saying: 'Roger feels compelled to show his heavy metal style. This puts him in a difficult situation on the labour market. Therefore he needs extra financial help'. So now I can turn up at a job interview dressed in my normal clothes and just hand the interviewers this piece of paper," he said.

Social Security will keep spoon-feeding disability checks to a California man who wears a giant diaper and lives as an "adult baby."

Stanley Thornton Jr. says that the federal agency has cleared him of wrongdoing after a probe into his disability claims began after his bizarre appearance on National Geographic television earlier this year.

Thorton wrote on his website that he receives disability because he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit disorder, depression, bipolar disorder and other ailments - not because he chooses to live as an adult baby.